NUZI AND THE HURRIANS PFEIFFER 549 



segregated and independent. The rooms closest to the palace, which 

 are generally smaller, may have housed servants of the governor. 

 One of the house units actually utilizes the palace wall. 



The great palace of Nuzi, by far the most important and best built 

 edifice of the city, was the government building and the official resi- 

 dence of the governor of Nuzi. Through an admirable general plan, 

 more than 100 large and small rooms were organically related within 

 a single architectural structure. The massive walls, the brick pave- 

 ments of courtyards accurately laid over a stratum of sand, the effi- 

 cient drainage system, and the abundant sanitary facilities cannot be 

 matched in the other buildings of Nuzi. At " the gate of the palace ", 

 according to the records, many of the tablets were written, but this 

 gate has been totally obliterated by erosion. The location of this 

 gate can be fixed, with reasonable assurance, at the northern cor- 

 ner of the building on the main street near the northeastern city gate. 

 Through this entrance one entered a spacious courtyard (M94) pro- 

 vided with seats along the walls, ostensibly for the convenience of 

 those seeking audience with the governor or transacting business at 

 the gate, according to the well-known practice of the Israelites. A 

 door in the southwestern wall of M94 led to three rooms of decreas- 

 ing size (M 89, Y9, 78), two of which gave access to the great central 

 courtyard of the palace (MlOO). Two doors in the southeastern wall 

 of M94 led to a subordinate eastern wing of the palace having no 

 direct access to the central courtyard. This wing probably housed 

 minor officials; its southwestern portion consisted of a kitchen and 

 bakery built around a courtyard with a square well ; its northeastern 

 section comprised business offices, a courtyard with a round well, 

 restricted sleeping quarters, and water closets. 



The main central courtyard (MlOO) was originally paved in baked 

 bricks; the bricks of its central portion were removed while still 

 exposed after the destruction of the building. Brick facings still 

 remain along its four walls and within its eight doorways. Sub- 

 terranean terra-cotta pipes drained the rainwater from the roofs. 

 After passing under the kitchen and the water closets of the service 

 quarters at the eastern corner of the palace, the water carried the 

 refuse through a brick cloaca maxima to a considerable distance in 

 a southeasterly direction. The three doors in the southeastern wall 

 of the courtyard led to a group of rooms, partially obliterated, 

 adjoining the service quarters. The two doors in the northeastern 

 wall were the entrances from the street (through M94 and two vesti- 

 bules). One of the two doors in the northwestern wall led to a 

 group of rooms built around a paved courtyard (LlOl) ; one of them 

 was a storage cellar containing 37 large jars and smaller vessels. 



The great doorway through the southwestern wall, the most im- 

 portant of the eight in the courtyard, had twin wooden doors and 



